Monday, February 16, 2009

Dissent Is Patriotic!

I attended my first protest today. A group of concerned citizens met down at Westlake Park in downtown Seattle today starting around noon (With all the appropriate permits), to protest the Federal Boondoggle knows as the 2009 "Stimulus Bill". On the conservative side of the isle, it's know as "Porkulus" or "Spendulus". I estimated the crowd at 125 to 150 or so.

It was organized by Liberty Belle a local conservative blogger. I found out about the protest via one of my favoite bloggers, Michelle Malkin.

The protest was mainly peaceful, with 2 fairly minor exceptions. 1, a Lib took the stage uninvited and started shouting something to the effect "Where were you in the last 6 years under Bush?". He was convinced to leave the stage, totally non-physically (as far as I saw). There was another heckler there, shouting comments from the side, eating the free food donated by Michelle Malkin. When he left, he left his garbage on the steps. When someone nicely asked him to take it, he said to the effect, "No Way!"

Here are some of the pics I took:

The protesters gathered close to the stage at the end.


An attractive bunch of anti-pork protesters.


Just say no to giant pork bills!


The youngest (and quite possibly cutest) protester.

Liberty Belle doing her thing, leading the protest!

Little 'ol me, holding my hand made protest sign. I feel so patriotic!


The party crasher who ate free food then left his garbage on the steps.


UPDATE 11:05 PM PST:

Thanks for the link, Gateway Pundit! (one of my favorite blogs)

A lot more pics on Flickr

Video on Seattle's KIRO 7, via Michelle Malkin


UPDATE 2/17/09

Another good blog post, via Michelle Malkin

17 comments:

Unknown said...

Thats an impressive crowd for Seattle. Even the Anti war weekly group downtown on 2nd street, barely made a dozen on most days.

You got no press coverage, of course. MSM ignoramous.

SkaReb said...

What...no flag burnings? No 'death to America' chants? No calling for the beating and beheading of the opposition?

Was this really in America?

Oh, yes. The Left suffered soooo much under Bush. All those death camps and everything.

Bunch of loons. Now, if a Conservative had dared done that at a Communist, Code Pink, etc. rally, that would be on MSNBC for a week as evidence of the violent nature of Republicans.

Anonymous said...

Greg -- love the report, like to see more of these rallies. FYI, next time spell-check your sign BEFORE you create it (heroes). Sorry for the quibble, not a big deal in blogging, but it is in protesting, IMHO.

Greg Moon said...

Thanks, Anonymous! I made the sign in about 20 minutes, and DID kinda wonder if I was spelling "heroes" right. Spelling has never been my strong suit.

Master Typo said...

Greg, thanks for stopping by at my site. You have some great pix. I especially liked yours of the family with the pork hats. I wished I had gotten a better one of them.

You may be right about the crowd count. I just took my best guess.

Placeholder said...

20 protesters + 100 winos. Nice one, wingnuts!

Anonymous said...

"Little 'ol me, holding my hand made protest sign. I feel so patriotic!"

Based on that photo it looks like you're against ALL forms of tax -especially syntax.

Anonymous said...

I linked here from your comment on a Hot Air post and was happy to see this. My husband and I (currently Georgia residents) might be relocating to Seattle in the near future. It's a great city, we've visited before, I love the waterfront, the shopping, the parks, etc. I have been worried that as conservatives we would stick out like sore thumbs so it is nice to see some that we wouldn't be all alone :)

Greg Moon said...

20 protesters + 100 winos. Nice one, wingnuts!

Yeah, Dude, I'm standing by my count. 100+ protesters, 10 or so, er, uh, "Others".

Greg Moon said...

Based on that photo it looks like you're against ALL forms of tax -especially syntax.

The founders recognized the need for some taxes, but they were against big central government.

Anonymous said...

Thats an impressive crowd for Seattle.

150 people. Yeah, just like the 50,000 that came out in 2003 to protest the war.

Couldn't you have all stayed home and just tweeted each other?

Greg Moon said...

Hey Commie,

It was an event that got a lot of coverage in the conservative blogosphere, and even some local TV coverage. Yes, it was fairly small, be we live in the heart of Lib Seattle, which is about 80% Lib. Considering that, it wasn't half bad.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for covering this Moon! Got your link from Gateway!

To those who want to support this bill, good - "You Can" be "the ones" to pay for it. All of it, yourselves.

The rest of us Americans, who don't want it, will just do our own work and enjoy some roasted pork > PIG Roast in Denver! Wee, wee!

Win, WIN compromise. You pay, while we eat! thx

Billy Joe said...

A conservative who has a tenuous grasp of the English language (as evidenced by his inability to spell)? What else is new???

I can't wait until conservatives start protesting the nearly equivalent outlay of federal money for the Iraq boondoggle. How much has been lost or stolen there in a war that even conservatives now widely admit was started because of 'faulty intelligence'? And yet reports of corruption and waste in Iraq are met with universal silence by so-called 'conservatives'.

Conservatives love Iraq more than they love America and would rather rebuild Iraq.

Greg Moon said...

Billy Joe,

I've seen plenty of Liberals who can't spell, so that's a straw man. Why do you feel the need to try to insult the opposition? Can you handle a discussion solely on the issues?

Obama, in less than a month, is spending $787,000,000,000.00. The Iraq war has gone on for almost SIX years, and has cost $200,000,000,000 less than than the very questionable "stimulus" at around $550,000,000,000.

The constitution tells us that defense is an actual function of the Feds, as opposed to wasteful pork.

Anonymous said...

Some good photos of the Denver Pork-O-Rama signing (with humor) at: http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/

How much money did it cost to fly him down there do his thing, feed them all, clear out the air space etc. etc. and fly back ~ is that taken out of his pocket? NO. He's joy riding "free" with American's money and he isn't even American born!

He didn't have to fly there at all. He just thought he'd be better received and that they "loved him" there.
NOpe!
See comments at: http://www.americasright.com/

Anonymous said...

"Defense", so that's what you call invading a country that didn't attack us.

Sounds more like "Offense" to me.